Searching for Sharples

We have had a wonderful day.  It has been sunny and cool.  We have enjoyed a light breeze and it looks like Hermine will miss us although they keep saying the storm could always make a sudden change.

After attending a local ward for church this morning we decided we would spend the afternoon doing some serious detective work to find the famous ”Sharples Rock”.  This is what we knew about the location:

            - it was 2 miles north or northwest of Chester but in one of the documents we read it was in an area called Waterville

            - we could not find any area called Waterville

            - we had a 1683 map showing the property with the house close by Ridley Creek

            - using that map overlaid onto a current map of the area Ed discovered it was at an intersection of two roads, Brookhaven and Waterville!

With our optimism and technology (our trusty GPS) we went to that location and found Ridley Creek and …………a Jewish Cemetery!

We were not discouraged.  We drove around finding spots along Ridley Creek but didn’t find anything that was promising so we had to come up with another plan.  What to do?  Find the police!  Off we went to find the nearest police station for that area.  At the second station (the first one was closed on weekends…..what????) Nora spoke with an officer who was willing to use his computer to look for the name Sharples.  He found a Joel Sharples in a neighboring township and gave us directions. It wasn’t far from where we had been looking before, so we anxiously went to the place he told us.  We didn’t find what we thought we were going to see so we kept driving up the road and suddenly I said, “Stop! There it is!”

This is what I saw first:

Ed backed up and we drove into what we thought was a driveway past a fairly modern house and then we saw it.....beautiful!!  Don't have a clue what Wolley Stille means to the family, but I'm hoping we will be able to discover much more detail about the house later on. 

These are the plaques to the left and right of the front door. 

Joseph Sharples was the youngest son of John Sharples and was quite young when his father died in 1685.  He is the ancestor from whom our family descends. 

I loved seeing this above the front door.....

Looking at the stone work we can tell that the house was added on but since no on was home I don't know what was added when and by whom.  Hopefully I will learn more later.  I am happy we did this during the first week here.  We have plenty of time to try and make contact with the owners/residents and learn more of the details of this living legacy from our ancestors. 

So......our next adventure will be to travel along Ridley Creek and see if we can find the actual Rock!! Ed has found a photo on Ancestry of the rock where the first house was built.  

We will put on proper trekking shoes for tomorrow and (weather permitting) head out and see what we can find. 

All in all it has been a wonderful day indeed!